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The Nature of Decentralized Virtual Currencies: Benefits, Risks and Regulations

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The Nature of Decentralized Virtual Currencies: Benefits, Risks and Regulations MILE 14 Thesis | Fall 2014 The Nature of Decentralized Virtual Currencies: Benefits, Risks and Regulations. Paul du Plessis Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Kern Alexander 1 DECLARATION This master thesis has been written in partial fulfilment of the Master of International Law and Economics Programme at the World Trade Institute. The ideas and opinions expressed in this paper are made independently, represent my own views and are based on my own research. I confirm that this work is my own and has not been submitted for academic credit in any other subject or course. I have acknowledged all material and sources used in this paper. I understand that my thesis may be made available in the World Trade Institute library. 2 ABSTRACT Virtual currency schemes have proliferated in recent years and have become a focal point of media and regulators. The objective of this paper is to provide a description of the technical nature of Bitcoin and the reason for its existence. With an understanding of the basic workings of this new payment system, we can draw comparisons to fiat currency, analyze the associated risks and benefits, and effectively discusses the current regulatory framework. 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page 1. Introduction .............................................................................................. 4 2. The Evolution of Money .......................................................................... 6 2.1. Defining Money ................................................................................. 6 2.2. The Origin of Money ......................................................................... 6 2.3. The Two Concepts of Money ............................................................ 8 2.4. What are Virtual Currencies?............................................................. 11 3. Decentralized Cryptographic Virtual Currency: Bitcoin ......................... 13 3.1. What is Bitcoin? ................................................................................. 13 3.2. The Bitcoin System: How is a Global Public Ledger Maintained through Distributed Consensus? ..................................... 14 3.3. Wallets, bitcoins and Transactions .................................................... 18 3.3.1. Digital Keys, Addresses and Wallets………………………… 19 3.3.2. Bitcoins……………………………………………………….. 21 3.3.3. A bitcoin Transaction………………………………………… 23 3.4. The Current Economic State of Bitcoin (October 2014) .................. 24 4. Benefits of Using Bitcoin as a payment system...................................... 26 4.1. Economic Benefits ............................................................................ 26 4.2. Financial Inclusion ............................................................................ 28 5. Risks associated with Bitcoin ................................................................. 30 5.1. Risks to Users ................................................................................... 31 5.2. Risks to Financial Integrity ............................................................... 33 5.3. Risks to Regulators ........................................................................... 36 5.4. Risk of undermining the State’s monopoly on currency .................. 37 6. Regulation of Virtual Currencies ............................................................ 39 7. Conclusion ............................................................................................... 44 4 1. Introduction Virtual currency schemes have proliferated in recent years and have become a focal point of media and regulators. Virtual currencies are defined by the European Banking Authority as a digital representation of value that is neither issued by a central bank or public authority nor necessarily attached to fiat currencies, but is used as a means of exchange and can be transferred, stored or traded electronically. 1 This paper focuses on Bitcoin, the first decentralized variation of virtual currency. In 2008 the Bitcoin white paper was published online by Satoshi Nakamoto, a pseudonymous person or likely a group people. The paper, “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System” proposes a “purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash would allow online payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a financial institution [..] a system for electronic transactions without relying on trust.2 The open source Bitcoin software was released in January 2009, with an establishment of an exchange rate only on October 5, 2009 where 1 USD = 1,309 BTC. This initial value was calculated as the electricity exerted per bitcoin generated.3 Since then, the system has grown to into a currency that is used for 60 – 80 thousand transactions per day, has a market capitalization of 5 billion USD, and trades 1 BTC = 380 USD.4 Regardless of the extreme volatility in the exchange rate, an increasing number of suppliers are now accepting Bitcoin as a means of payment for a myriad of goods and services. Adopters include large multinationals companies such as eBay Inc’s PayPal service, Dell Inc. (multinational technology corporation), DISH Network (pay-TV provider), CheapAir (airline) and Expedia Inc. (online travel agency, hotel bookings).5 The objective of this paper is to provide a description of the technical nature of Bitcoin and the reason for its existence. With an understanding of the basic workings of this new payment 1 European Central Bank, ‘EBA Opinion on ‘virtual currencies’, EBA/Op/2014/08. 2014. 2 Nakamoto, S. ‘Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash system.’, 2008, (accessed 30 September 2014), https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf 3 ’New Liberty Standard’, (accessed 10 October 2014), http://newlibertystandard.wikifoundry.com/page/2009+Exchange+Rate 4 It must be noted that 1 BTC is arbitrarily divisible by up to 108. Thus, every bitcoin represents 100 million “satoshis” 5 Morphy, E. ‘Bitcoin? Yawn. CheapAir Is Now Taking Litecoin and Dogecoin.’, Forbes, 2014, (accessed 30 September 2014), http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikamorphy/2014/09/03/bitcoin-yawn-cheapair-is-now-taking- litecoin-and-dogecoin/ ‘What can you buy with Bitcoins?’, Coindesk, 2014, (accessed 29 September 2014), http://www.coindesk.com/information/what-can-you-buy-with-bitcoins/ 5 system, we can draw comparisons to fiat currency, analyze the associated risks and benefits, and effectively discusses the current regulatory framework. The second chapter introduces money theory. To understand Bitcoin, we require a basic understanding of the origin of money and role states and financial institutions play in the acceptance of money. It is accepted that the core objective of central banks is securing the stability of the national economy (price stability), and thus the stable value of a currency through maintaining public trust in the currency.6 The bitcoin protocol autonomously determines how new bitcoins are created and the total possible number of bitcoins is fixed. This precludes the possibility of state intervention its supply and thus, questions the role of the state. The third chapter describes and technical and economic nature of Bitcoin, drawing a comparison between its key properties to fiat currency systems. This chapter will provide a translation of the technical aspects of Bitcoin system which must be understood before its regulation can discussed. The fourth chapter describes the potential economic and conceptual benefits of decentralized virtual currencies, followed by chapter five which will identify risks arising from the use of virtual currencies. Risks will be categorized according to the bearer of the risk (users, non- user market participants, financial integrity, etc.).7 Chapter six will discuss the regulation of virtual currencies. The regulatory vacuum Bitcoin once existed in is swiftly getting filled with varying sentiment, while most countries adopt a permissive stance, others outright ban it. Regulation is required to safeguard parties within the virtual currency ecosystem from various risks that accompanies its use. Decentralized virtual currencies face particularly challenging law enforcement predicaments because of their ability to disregard national borders while having no “owner” that controls the system, thus systems like Bitcoin, cannot be tied to any single jurisdiction. Chapter seven concludes by mentioning noteworthy future applications of distributed ledger technology, and argues that the inventions underlying Bitcoin may change the world for the better. 6 Committee on Payment and Settlement Systems, ‘The role of central bank money in payment systems’, Bank for International Settlements, 2003. 7 European Central Bank, ‘EBA Opinion on ‘virtual currencies’, EBA/Op/2014/08, 2014. 6 2. The evolution of money 2.1 Defining money Money is a surprisingly elusive concept. Bamford(2011) stated that as with most attempts to define intellectual constructs, definitions of money describe what it does and some characteristics it has, instead of aiming to describe the thing itself.8 In human societies throughout history, money has served as commodities or tokens that have value and is used as a medium of exchange.9 Money’s source of value stems from society’s general agreement of what is seen acceptable tender in making payments and settling debt, rather than physical characteristics of the chosen media used.10 Classical economists agree that money mainly serves three functions within an economy. Firstly as a ‘medium of exchange’: An item that facilitates the exchange, something buyers give to sellers
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